A total of 22 symphonies, including seven for voice and orchestra, eight operas, 17 string quartets, concertos, sonatas, cantatas, and songs… One cannot stop marvelling at the richness and diversity of Mieczysław Weinberg’s life work. He was a composer “from three worlds”: a Polish artist of Jewish origin, an émigré who settled in the Soviet Union, a student of Józef Turczyński and Vasily Zolotarev, a friend of Dmitri Shostakovich and Mstislav Rostropovich, and a witness of history who escaped death, and who firmly believed in humanism as the only cure for the madness of the 20th century. There is no doubt that this outstanding figure deserves to be introduced to the wider public, and there is no better time for that than the year 2019, with the 100th anniversary of his birth falling on December 8.
– Agnieszka Nowok-Zych (NOSPR website)
Weinberg Anniversary concert in Łódź
On January 14, the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź will be filled with chamber music for cello and piano. The works of Mieczysław Weinberg will be performed by Wojciech Fudala and Michał Rot in connection with the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
The concert is part of a project dedicated to the promotion of Weinberg’s work, which the musicians carry out under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In the coming weeks, their album with the music of this composer will be released. The program of the January 14th concert will include Sonata for cello and piano, Op. 21 and Op. 63 by Mieczysław Weinberg as well as two works by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Romance sans paroles op. 109 and Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58.
Cellist Wojciech Fudala graduated from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels (with highest distinction). Since 2018, he is a lecturer at the Academy of Music in Łódź. A very important part of Wojciech Fudala’s activity is chamber music. He is a member and founder of the Polish Cello Quartet, and since 2017 he regularly performs with pianist Michał Rot. The latter is a graduate of the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź, where he works as an adjunct at the Institute of Chamber Music.
January 14, 2019 | 6:15 pm
Weinberg 100th Anniversary Concert
Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music
Sala 12, Pałac Akademii Muzycznej, ul. Gdańska 32, Łódź, Poland
Info: amuz.lodz.pl
Admission: FREE
‘Days of Mieczysław Weinberg’ in Katowice
The National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) will host the “Days of Mieczysław Weinberg” from January 17-27, 2019 in Katowice. This series of concerts is devoted to the work of Mieczysław Weinberg, whose 100th birth anniversary is celebrated this year.
The “Days of Mieczysław Weinberg” are an occasion to celebrate this centenary and to savor his works in superb interpretations. Among others, audiences will hear Linus Roth, an outstanding violinist and one of the contemporary discoverers of the composer, during the final concert on January 27. It is on Roth’s initiative that the International Weinberg Society was founded to bring the composer and his work to public attention. The series will be inaugurated on January 17 by a NOSPR chamber concert. On January 18, the Fantasia for cello and orchestra will be performed by the NOSPR orchestra conducted by Jamie Phillips along with the well-known cellist of the younger generation, Marcin Zdunik. Weinberg’s music will be also included in the concerts of the Silesian Quartet and Michał Frenchman, the Berlin Piano Trio with Joanna Freszel, young instrumentalists Wojciech Fudala and Michał Rot, the AUKSO chamber orchestra under the baton of Marek Moś, Jadwiga Kotnowska, and Andrzej Ciepliński.
January 17-27, 2019 | various times
‘Days of Mieczysław Weinberg’ Festival
NOSPR Hall, Katowice, Poland
Info & Tickets: www.nospr.org.pl/en/news/700/mieczysaw-weinberg-days
[Sources: polmic.pl, amuz.lodz.pl, nospr.org.pl]